Editor's Note: The following is an interview with Hennadiy Yosypovych Udovenko (June 22, 1931 – February 12, 2013). He was a minister of foreign affairs, member of parliament and president of the United Nations General Assembly.
At 68, Hennady Udovenko is the oldest candidate running for president in the Oct. 31 election. He doesn’t have to worry about being an underachiever, even if he loses in the fall.
The career diplomat has held the top jobs in Ukrainian politics, even during Soviet times. He headed the United Nations General Assembly in 1997-98, was foreign minister of both the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and independent Ukraine, and has also served as the nation’s ambassador to the United Nations and Poland.
Now he heads the Rukh Party, Ukraine’s largest national party, and he presides over its faction in parliament.
The following is an excerpt from an interview with Udovenko from the Epicenter political show, which will be broadcast on Aug. 8 on the television channel 1+1. It is printed with Epicenter’s permission.
Q: During your career, you made a switch from being a loyal Soviet executive to understanding and defending the national idea. How did it happen?
A: It helped me that I became Ukraine’s representative to the United Nations during perestroika, in February 1985. [U.S.-based] Patriarch Mstyslav came to me at that time and asked me to help him plan a visit to Ukraine. When he returned, there was much joy in the Ukrainian community about his visit.
Q: Who was influenced more: you, who were exposed to national ideas, or they, to whom you advertised the advantages of the Soviet system?
A: There was influence from the [Ukrainian] Foreign Ministry, but there was also influence [from the U.N.]. We saw human rights being defended. We saw how they stand for every single person. We were told to study new Western technologies and their political processes. Representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora (in America) could tell you what I was like in the Soviet times, and what I am like now. I have always been the same. I have been myself, and I have been a patriot of Ukraine. I was a patriot of Soviet Ukraine, too.
Q: You worked on the teams of both President Leonid Kravchuk and President Leonid Kuchma. Now you are running against Kuchma in the election. What does this treason mean?
A: As to the current president, this is not treason. It’s democratization of society. I was nominated to run for president by Narodny Rukh Ukrainy [The Rukh Party].
Q: But you agreed. Why do you think you will be able to do his job better?
A: I hope that my life experience, what I did during my diplomatic career as a foreign minister, what I saw during my long stays abroad, especially in such developed countries as the United States, Switzerland and even Poland will [help me do the job better]. I didn’t say Kuchma doesn’t suit me. Kuchma is the president, and Rukh has nominated me to become his competitor. I think I will do more good for the Ukrainian state. Under my initiative, in 1990, there was a brochure printed in the United States called, ‘The world’s seventh largest economy is now open for business.’ We could have been number seven, but where are we now? In eight years of independence we have missed a lot of chances.
Q: Yury Kostenko has initialed the Fair Elections Agreement [signed by Leonid Kuchma, Oleksandr Moroz and Oleksandr Tkachenko]. Are you intending to sign it?
A: I don’t see anything bad in this agreement. I call it ‘the candidates’ code of behavior during the elections.’ But if I were to join this agreement, I would probably have some extra conditions. But I am told that the bloc is formed, signed and there is nothing to be added.
Q: How different are you from other candidates? What makes you different from Kuchma?
A: You are pushing me all the time to place all responsibility on Kuchma, and criticize him all the time. I have a completely different credo. I represent my party, its program. It’s popular now to criticize Kuchma. But is it just one person who has done it to the country? Where were we, our very parliament, our parties? It’s not those in power who rob people. It’s the situation, which they allowed.
Q: You don’t support any actions of the opposition, and at the same time you play against some opposition leaders. You are a part of the president’s plan, under which you undermine the chances of Marchuk and Kostenko.
A: I don’t agree that I work under a scenario scripted on Bankova Street. If such a scenario did exist, it would have had to have been written with my participation. At the same time, why do you think that it’s me who undermines the chances of Marchuk and Kostenko? Why don’t you think that it’s them who undermine my chances? I have to underline that I have no information about any scenarios from Bankova that involve me.
Q: Many people think that you won’t be able to get into the second round of the election. If you fail to do it, who would you support?
A: Saying that I have no chance is creating a myth. The Rukh and [their ally] Reforms and Order have a very clear strategy: We are hoping to win in the first round, or at least get into the second round. If I don’t get into the second round, top organs of the two parties will meet up and decide who to support. It’s too early to say now who to give our votes to.
Q: The Reforms and Order party has decided who they are never going to support: Kuchma, Tkachenko, Symonenko and Vitrenko. What’s your personally feeling? Would you support Moroz?
A: I can say undoubtedly not. I will act as the party acts, and we will not vote for him.
Q: If you do win, who will be your team, who will be in your government, who will be your prime minister?
A: I have a team, but I won’t name anybody. I can name the people whom I will not appoint. Naming names is untactful toward the people who are hoping to be named. Naming a prime minister, for example, would be too early.
